1914-15 Star : Private Robert Angus Whitelaw, 21 Battalion, AIF

1914-15 Star. Impressed reverse with recipents details.

1003 Private Robert Angus Whitelaw was born in the Victorian town of Briagolong to Robert and Annie Whitelaw. In January 1915, at the age of 29, he enlisted in the AIF. He was assigned to the newly formed 21st Battalion. Soon after the battalion arrived in Egypt he was temporarily promoted to corporal. In September his battalion arrived at Gallipoli, too late to see any of the major action of the August Offensive. Robert, now a private again, was medically evacuated from the Gallipoli Peninsula in November. He would spend the next twelve months recovering from illness in Egypt, only returning to the 21st Battalion in France in November 1916. Soon after returning to his unit he was promoted to sergeant. On 3 May 1917 the 21st Battalion took part in the second battle of Bullecourt, where Sergeant Whitelaw was killed in action. An eye witness reported he was 'hit by a shell...and killed instantaneously, being blown to pieces'. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.

Sergeant Whitelaw was one of six brothers who enlisted in AIF. Two of his brothers were also killed during the war: Corporal Ivan Cecil Whitelaw, MM, killed on 23 April 1918, and Private Angus McSween Whitelaw, killed on 25 August 1916. A fourth brother, Private Kenneth Whitelaw, was invalided home after a gunshot wound to the chest, but died of his wound in 1922. Two brothers, Private Lionel Whitelaw and Sergeant Donald John Whitelaw, survived the war.

• British War Medal 1914-20 : Sergeant Robert Angus Whitelaw, 21 Battalion, AIF
• Victory Medal : Sergeant Robert Angus Whitelaw, 21 Battalion AIF